Las Cafeteras — A Culture Cast interview with Hector Flores

I occasionally produce a podcast called the Culture Cast with my buddy Tracy Van Slyke. This week Tracy was too busy being awesome (seriously) so I interviewed Hector Flores of one of my favorite bands, Las Cafeteras.  Check it out. 

What’s better than a bunch of young lefty Chicanos playing Son Jarocho on stage while a mixed young crowd sings along clapping and dancing like it’s a punk or hip hop show?

Not much.
 

That’s what you get when you see Las Cafeteras, a seven piece band who’s East LA members met through various social justice campaigns and organizing and who take their name from the East Side Cafe where they first learned to play, most of them not until they were in their 20s.

Las Cafeteras music is political party music that makes manifestos something you can’t help but shake your ass to. It is the kind of movement we need in our, well, movement. 

In this interview Hector Flores, one of the Cafeteras, for the Culture Cast we talk about how the band got started, what it means to be in a band that is also kind of a political calling, and what it is like to be in the middle of a 55 day tour with 6 other people.

To hear, see, follow, and nerd out about everything Las Cafeteras check them out on: twitter @lascafeteras, facebook, YouTube. And maybe they are coming to a hood near you.

In the mean time… you’re welcome.